Our May issue features an extra 96 pages of great work in The Annual plus features on Ruth Ansel, folk-influenced illustration and much more. Plus a cover image that was grown in the lab…

This month’s cover, by Craig Ward of Words are Pictures, uses an image that was literally grown in an immunology lab using pollen cells. For more on how it was done, see here

Inside, we have The Annual, our showcase of the finest work of the year

For the first time, we are also making the Annual available as an iPhone App. All the content is included as well as links to video, interactive projects etc. For more on our Annual iPhone App (below) see here

Flip the magazine over to the issue side (as usual, May is a double issue with The Annual one side and the regular magazine on the other) and we have all the regulars including Hi-Res, featuring two projects on the decay of Detroit (that’s a real clock on the right, by the way, not a Dali painting)

Plus a feature on Ruth Ansel, the first female art director of Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair

Gavin Lucas looks at the current trend for folk-art inspired illustration

And we have a great piece from Karrie Jacobs on 3D typography

While in Crit we look at the idea of the logo as a receptacle for imagery, Gordon Comstock complains about the crushing banality of political advertising, James McNulty wonders why ad agencies bother with the increasingly ludicrous making-of films, Paula Scher tells readers about what you don’t learn in design school and much more

All in the 178-page May issue of CR, in shops from April 22

Observant readers may notice that this issue is ever-so-slightly smaller than last month’s. No, this isn’t part of a cunning plan to keep shaving millimetres off the magazine until you end up with nothing at all but rather the result of some duff advice we received about the Royal Mail’s sizes and the tolerances they work to – we won’t bore you with the details. Apologies if your line up of CRs on the shelf now looks even more uneven. That’s it for the size changes – we promise.

More from CR

We’d imagine that even the most staunch labour supporter might baulk at seeing a sight such as this (artwork by David Anderson) on their way home from work… It’s one of dozens of political slogans devised by a host of artists and designers which are being projected onto various London buildings throughout this week….

To tie in with the 9th Sci-Fi London Film Festival, graphic design studio Transmission asked 22 image makers from around the world to create a new piece of work depicting their vision of what life will be like in 2050…

Last week Music in Manchester produced the final poster in a series of four designed to promote Manchester City Football Club’s “big four” Premiership home fixtures of the football season – complete with an illustration of Carlos Tevez by Shephard Fairey’s studio, Studio Number One…

Currently on show at the Ultralounge space in Selfridges London is a project by artist duo The Girls, which celebrates their love of the magazine photo-story and a general nostalgia for the days of analogue…